Nils Pratley on finance + Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou | The Guardianhttps://www.theguardian.com/business/nils-pratley-on-finance+sir-stelios-haji-ioannou
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Hedge funds have a lot to answer for, no wonder they're paid so wellhttps://www.theguardian.com/business/nils-pratley-on-finance/2016/may/10/hedge-funds-have-a-lot-to-answer-for-no-wonder-theyre-paid-so-well
<p>Triumph of sector has been to enter the investment mainstream while clinging to fees that belong to age of bespoke tailoring</p><p>It almost makes one feel sorry for Bob Dudley, the BP boss who had to rub along on £14m last year. The calculation, courtesy of Institutional Investor’s Alpha magazine, that <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/may/10/hedge-fund-managers-salaries-billions-kenneth-griffin-james-simon">the world’s 25 best-paid hedge fund managers collected $13bn</a> between them last year puts rewards for Dudley and co in the shade. The top two on the list – Kenneth Griffin of Citadel and James Simons of Renaissance Technologies – took home $1.7bn each. To repeat, that was for a single year.</p><p>The hedgies, no doubt, would argue that nobody has to invest a single dollar with them and that their industry’s traditional fee model – 2% of funds under management, plus 20% of profit over a specified hurdle for returns – is only sustainable if the end-client is richer at the end of the process.</p><p> <span>Related: </span><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/may/10/hedge-fund-managers-salaries-billions-kenneth-griffin-james-simon">Top 25 hedge fund managers earned $13bn in 2015 – more than some nations</a> </p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/nils-pratley-on-finance/2016/may/10/hedge-funds-have-a-lot-to-answer-for-no-wonder-theyre-paid-so-well">Continue reading...</a>Hedge fundsFinancial sectorBusinesseasyJetSir Stelios Haji-IoannouAirline industryIPOsTue, 10 May 2016 18:44:41 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/business/nils-pratley-on-finance/2016/may/10/hedge-funds-have-a-lot-to-answer-for-no-wonder-theyre-paid-so-wellPhotograph: Gary Cameron / Reuters/ReutersPhotograph: Gary Cameron / Reuters/ReutersNils Pratley2016-05-10T18:44:41ZWhy hasn't Stelios carried out his threat to sell more easyJet shares?https://www.theguardian.com/business/nils-pratley-on-finance/2014/jan/23/stelios-threat-to-sell-easyjet-shares
Share price has risen 85% since his threat to sell, adding about £1bn to the value of the stake held by Haji-Ioannou and siblings<p>It was exactly a year ago that Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou issued a thunderous dispatch to the board of easyJet. He had sold a "token" 200,000 shares, or 0.34% of his holding in the airline, but he'd be a serious seller if the directors insisted on buying more aircraft. "If they place such an order now I will be looking to dispose of more of my stake before this happens," he said.</p><p>The board went ahead anyway with the order for 135 Airbus aircraft. But Haji-Ioannou didn't sell more shares, either beforehand or afterwards. A good thing, too, from his point of view. EasyJet's share price has risen 85% since he wrote, adding about £1bn to the value of the stake held by Haji-Ioannou and his siblings. Their 36.5% holding is now worth about £2.4bn.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/nils-pratley-on-finance/2014/jan/23/stelios-threat-to-sell-easyjet-shares">Continue reading...</a>easyJetAirline industryBusinessSir Stelios Haji-IoannouUK newsThu, 23 Jan 2014 23:49:04 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/business/nils-pratley-on-finance/2014/jan/23/stelios-threat-to-sell-easyjet-sharesNils Pratley2014-01-23T23:49:04ZEasyJet founder's attempt to block aircraft order was doomed from the offhttps://www.theguardian.com/business/nils-pratley-on-finance/2013/jul/11/easyjet-founder-stelios-aircraft-shareholders-purchase
Founder-turned-agitator's 36.5% stake in the airline transpires not to be enough to sway the decision, so what's next?<p>Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou's attempt to block easyJet's order of 135 Airbus aircraft looked doomed from the off, and so it has proved. The founder-turned-agitator seems to have been almost the only dissenter at Thursday's shareholder vote on the purchase. As with last year's attempt to eject the chairman, the family's 36.5% stake has not been enough.</p><p>The interesting question is what Sir Stelios does next. Past quarrels, over pay and dividends, were serious but a multi-billion pound aircraft order is plainly of a different order entirely. It is fundamental to any view of easyJet as an investment. In Sir Stelios's opinion, easyJet's board is engaged in a "vanity exercise" that will destroy shareholder value.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/nils-pratley-on-finance/2013/jul/11/easyjet-founder-stelios-aircraft-shareholders-purchase">Continue reading...</a>Sir Stelios Haji-IoannoueasyJetAirline industryBusinessUK newsFinancial sectorThu, 11 Jul 2013 18:27:28 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/business/nils-pratley-on-finance/2013/jul/11/easyjet-founder-stelios-aircraft-shareholders-purchasePhotograph: Sean Smith/GuardianIn Sir Stelios’ opinion, easyJet’s board is engaged in a 'vanity exercise' that will destroy shareholder value.
Photograph: Sean Smith for the GuardianPhotograph: Sean Smith/GuardianIn Sir Stelios’ opinion, easyJet’s board is engaged in a 'vanity exercise' that will destroy shareholder value.
Photograph: Sean Smith for the GuardianNils Pratley2013-07-11T18:27:28ZAn RBS 'bad bank' is not a bad idea. But George seems confusedhttps://www.theguardian.com/business/nils-pratley-on-finance/2013/jun/21/osborne-rbs-bad-bank-ba-iberia
• Refusing to inject more capital is probably a deal-breaker<br />• Iberia still looks earthbound, despite BA's best efforts <br />• Stelios is upset about easyJet. Again. But why?<p>»The good news for George Osborne is that Lloyds shares have done well since his Mansion House speech. The stock has barely moved in the past two days – impressive in a soggy stock market after a big seller has announced its intentions. Demand from City institutions, which will be offered the first slug of shares, seems to be strong.</p><p>The bad news is that a reverse-Midas touch has applied at Royal Bank of Scotland. Its shares are 12% lower than they were on Wednesday night, which is a drop of about £4bn in real money. The reason is not hard to fathom. The City sees a communication shambles at the Treasury over RBS and thinks the chancellor is digging a deeper hole for himself via his belated openness towards the "bad bank" idea.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/nils-pratley-on-finance/2013/jun/21/osborne-rbs-bad-bank-ba-iberia">Continue reading...</a>British AirwaysAirline industryRoyal Bank of ScotlandPoliticsBankingStephen HesterTravel & leisureGeorge OsborneBusinessWillie WalshIberiaInternational Airlines GroupeasyJetSir Stelios Haji-IoannouFri, 21 Jun 2013 18:50:52 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/business/nils-pratley-on-finance/2013/jun/21/osborne-rbs-bad-bank-ba-iberiaPhotograph: Luke Macgregor/PAGeorge Osborne, the chancellor, can't wait to take some money out of Lloyds. But he's seen £4bn wiped off RBS shares. Photograph: Luke Macgregor/PAPhotograph: Luke Macgregor/PAGeorge Osborne, the chancellor, can't wait to take some money out of Lloyds. But he's seen £4bn wiped off RBS shares. Photograph: Luke Macgregor/PANils Pratley2013-06-21T18:50:52ZDivorce from Waitrose now the only risk for Ocadohttps://www.theguardian.com/business/nils-pratley-on-finance/2013/may/17/ocado-morrisons-easyjet-hs2-thomas-cook
• Morrisons and Waitrose planning for a long alliance?<br />• Make your mind up time for Sir Stelios<br />• HS2: trains and turkeys<br />• Thomas Cook in the game again<p>For Ocado, <strong>the deal with Morrisons</strong> stacks up beautifully on day one. When the online specialist opened its second huge distribution centre in Dordon, Warwickshire, in February the worry was that it would take ages to fill a warehouse capable of handling £1bn of sales a year. Now there's a quickish solution: half the space will be devoted to Morrisons' new online business.</p><p>The financial terms for Ocado also look smart. By selling Dordon to Morrisons for £170m and leasing it back, Ocado will be transformed from a company with net debt to one with a handsome cash balance. It will also get a string of other payments from IT licence fees to a quarter-share of any operating profits from Morrisons.com for the next 15 years. Neat.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/nils-pratley-on-finance/2013/may/17/ocado-morrisons-easyjet-hs2-thomas-cook">Continue reading...</a>Sir Stelios Haji-IoannouAirline industryeasyJetBusinessWaitroseRetail industryOcadoSupermarketsMorrisonsHS2UK newsThomas CookFri, 17 May 2013 17:44:51 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/business/nils-pratley-on-finance/2013/may/17/ocado-morrisons-easyjet-hs2-thomas-cookPhotograph: Gary CaltonA Morrisons supermarket depot in Yorkshire. Photograph: Gary CaltonPhotograph: Gary CaltonA Morrisons supermarket depot in Yorkshire. Photograph: Gary CaltonNils Pratley2013-05-17T17:44:51ZIs Stelios serious about selling family's easyJet stake? | Nils Pratleyhttps://www.theguardian.com/business/nils-pratley-on-finance/2013/jan/21/stelios-selling-family-easyjet-stake
With easyJet shares at an all-time high, you don't have to be too cynical to wonder whether there's another factor at work<p>"This token disposal of shares sends a clear message to our directors," said Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou as <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2013/jan/21/stelios-threatens-sell-easyjet-shares" title="">he announced he, his brother and his sister had each sold 200,000 shares in easyJet</a>. Given that this leaves the trio with just less than 37% of the airline, rather than slightly more than 37%, "token" is indeed the right word.</p><p>The interesting bit is what Stelios does next: if the board places another order for aircraft, he says he will look to sell more of his stake.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/nils-pratley-on-finance/2013/jan/21/stelios-selling-family-easyjet-stake">Continue reading...</a>easyJetSir Stelios Haji-IoannouAirline industryBusinessMon, 21 Jan 2013 18:25:49 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/business/nils-pratley-on-finance/2013/jan/21/stelios-selling-family-easyjet-stakePhotograph: Graeme RobertsonStelios is within his rights to crank up the pressure. Photograph: Graeme RobertsonPhotograph: Graeme RobertsonStelios is within his rights to crank up the pressure. Photograph: Graeme RobertsonNils Pratley2013-01-21T18:25:49ZEasyJet is not out of the Stelios stormhttps://www.theguardian.com/business/nils-pratley-on-finance/2012/jan/30/sir-stelios-easyjet-share-row
The argument rages between the easyJet board and the airline's founder, but on the long-term incentive plan he has something interesting to say<p>"The gravy train of £180m free shares issued over the last decade must come to an end," says <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/business/2012/jan/30/sir-stelios-haji-ioannou-easyjet-bonuses" title="">Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou, founder of easyJet</a>. Wow, that's a striking statistic – £180m equates to about 10% of the company's market valuation.</p><p>But is it the whole story? EasyJet thinks not – and one can understand why. It says that 30.7m out of 41m shares issued to employees since 2000 relate to pre-flotation schemes put in place by Haji-Ioannou himself. Indeed, he seems to have been generous in spreading the fruits of easyJet's success. It was not only executives in the early years who benefited – pilots and cabin crew did too. Good for Haji-Ioannou, he was ahead of his time in promoting staff share ownership – but, come on, he shouldn't include those shares in an allegation that the board (on which he sat for most of the decade) has been too loose with other people's money.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/nils-pratley-on-finance/2012/jan/30/sir-stelios-easyjet-share-row">Continue reading...</a>easyJetAirline industryBusinessSir Stelios Haji-IoannouMon, 30 Jan 2012 19:04:41 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/business/nils-pratley-on-finance/2012/jan/30/sir-stelios-easyjet-share-rowPhotograph: Graeme RobertsonSir Stelios Haji-Ioannou was generous in spreading the fruits of easyJet's success Photograph: Graeme Robertson for the GuardianPhotograph: Graeme RobertsonSir Stelios Haji-Ioannou was generous in spreading the fruits of easyJet's success Photograph: Graeme Robertson for the GuardianNils Pratley2012-01-30T19:04:41Z